Friends,
When I was very young - 8 or 9 or 10 - my parents found a used set (in 12 volumes) of A Young Folks' Treasury. Along with a set of Compton's Encyclopedia, my dad's ever-present National Geographics, and other books, these had much to do with forming my young and impressionable mind, and gave me a pretty good education for my age. I used to love rainy days because then I didn't have to go out and play. I could tuck away in a tent made of a card table and a sheet and read these books to my heart's content (and add to the content of my mind as well.)
That original set is still somewhere in my parents' home, mouldering away. However, I was very lucky in finding another set in a used book store in Massachusetts, about 20 years ago. I have these on my shelves to this day.
My son and family were over tonight. While he is familiar with the books, I called his attention to them again. Soon, he was fascinated by a story from Japan's history. I decided to see if the set were still available, somewhere. My search hit almost immediately on the story of Baucis and Philemon.
Some of you are familiar with how this myth as entered into our lives and shaped our goals. The scholarship fund at my former college is named the Baucis and Philemon Scholarship Fund. Along with it, we have two trees and a bench. On the bench is a plaque which reads:
[Mr & Mrs Ho Ho] > (our first names are on the plaque)
Our story is in the wind.
Sit and rest.
Hear our story.
Be our friend.
These lines came to me many years ago, in the early days of our marriage (Mrs Ho Ho and I.) It wasn't until some time later that we came across the P & B legend and sensed similarities with our own lives. We have read many versions of this legend, all built on the original story from Ovid's 'Metamorphoses', but none which ended quite the same way as this old re-telling from Young Folks' Treasury. I have included a link to a photocopy, but have also copied in the final few paragraphs. As I read it, the memory came back to me. I had read this version before, as a child, from those old books! In some way, they remained buried in my subconscious, emerging years ago as the lines which are now affixed to our bench.
I share it with you now. If you find your way to our bench, listen closely to the wind in the trees. Perhaps you will hear "Welcome, dear traveler, welcome."
From A Young Folks' Treasury, Vol. 3, Mythology: Myths of Greece and Rome: Baucis and Philemon
[These are the final paragraphs.]
Baucis and Philemon lived a great, great many years and grew very old. And one summer morning when their friends came to share their breakfast, neither Baucis nor Philemon was to be found!
The guests looked everywhere, and all in vain. Then suddenly one of them noticed two beautiful trees in the garden, just in front of the door. One was an oak tree and the other a linden tree, and their branches were twisted together so that they seemed to be embracing.
No one had ever seen these trees before, and while they were all wondering how such fine trees could possibly have grown up in a single night, there came a gentle wind which set the branches moving, and then a mysterious voice was heard coming from the oak tree. "I am old Philemon," it said; and again another voice whispered, "And I am Baucis." And the people knew that the good old couple would live for a hundred years or more in the heart of these lovely trees. And oh, what a pleasant shade they flung around! Some kind soul built a seat under the branches, and whenever a traveler sat down to rest he heard a pleasant whisper of the leaves over his head, and he wondered why the sound should seem to say, "Welcome, dear traveler, welcome."
When I was very young - 8 or 9 or 10 - my parents found a used set (in 12 volumes) of A Young Folks' Treasury. Along with a set of Compton's Encyclopedia, my dad's ever-present National Geographics, and other books, these had much to do with forming my young and impressionable mind, and gave me a pretty good education for my age. I used to love rainy days because then I didn't have to go out and play. I could tuck away in a tent made of a card table and a sheet and read these books to my heart's content (and add to the content of my mind as well.)
That original set is still somewhere in my parents' home, mouldering away. However, I was very lucky in finding another set in a used book store in Massachusetts, about 20 years ago. I have these on my shelves to this day.
My son and family were over tonight. While he is familiar with the books, I called his attention to them again. Soon, he was fascinated by a story from Japan's history. I decided to see if the set were still available, somewhere. My search hit almost immediately on the story of Baucis and Philemon.
Some of you are familiar with how this myth as entered into our lives and shaped our goals. The scholarship fund at my former college is named the Baucis and Philemon Scholarship Fund. Along with it, we have two trees and a bench. On the bench is a plaque which reads:
[Mr & Mrs Ho Ho] > (our first names are on the plaque)
Our story is in the wind.
Sit and rest.
Hear our story.
Be our friend.
These lines came to me many years ago, in the early days of our marriage (Mrs Ho Ho and I.) It wasn't until some time later that we came across the P & B legend and sensed similarities with our own lives. We have read many versions of this legend, all built on the original story from Ovid's 'Metamorphoses', but none which ended quite the same way as this old re-telling from Young Folks' Treasury. I have included a link to a photocopy, but have also copied in the final few paragraphs. As I read it, the memory came back to me. I had read this version before, as a child, from those old books! In some way, they remained buried in my subconscious, emerging years ago as the lines which are now affixed to our bench.
I share it with you now. If you find your way to our bench, listen closely to the wind in the trees. Perhaps you will hear "Welcome, dear traveler, welcome."
From A Young Folks' Treasury, Vol. 3, Mythology: Myths of Greece and Rome: Baucis and Philemon
[These are the final paragraphs.]
Baucis and Philemon lived a great, great many years and grew very old. And one summer morning when their friends came to share their breakfast, neither Baucis nor Philemon was to be found!
The guests looked everywhere, and all in vain. Then suddenly one of them noticed two beautiful trees in the garden, just in front of the door. One was an oak tree and the other a linden tree, and their branches were twisted together so that they seemed to be embracing.
No one had ever seen these trees before, and while they were all wondering how such fine trees could possibly have grown up in a single night, there came a gentle wind which set the branches moving, and then a mysterious voice was heard coming from the oak tree. "I am old Philemon," it said; and again another voice whispered, "And I am Baucis." And the people knew that the good old couple would live for a hundred years or more in the heart of these lovely trees. And oh, what a pleasant shade they flung around! Some kind soul built a seat under the branches, and whenever a traveler sat down to rest he heard a pleasant whisper of the leaves over his head, and he wondered why the sound should seem to say, "Welcome, dear traveler, welcome."
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